Research

Research at the Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience addresses the cognitive and neuronal bases underlying event perception, with a specific focus on the perception of events and actions caused by human agents. As an example, how can we tell whether a child is about to run across the street in front of us? How do we know whether someone is about to attack us with a punch, or aims to greet us with a fist bump? How do we plan our own actions, and to which degree do the underlying patterns of activation contribute to understanding of actions performed by other people? How does the perception and recognition of objects and scenes contribute to our ability to understand and predict actions?

To address these and related questions, we are using a variety of different methods, ranging from behavioral studies to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), transcranial brain stimulation (TMS) and electroencephalography (EEG) in combination with multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) and representational similarity analysis (RSA). Overall, research in Cognitive Neuroscience is highly interdisciplinary, with strong links to related areas within (e.g. Experimental Psychology, Developmental Psychology) and outside (e.g. Medicine, Informatics, Linguistics) Psychology.

Our research is funded by